The proposals include a charge of £26 for more than five hours on a Sunday, and Cambridge News readers have been having their say on the website and facebook page.

Anne Beamish, editor of Independent Cambridge which champions the city's indie businesses, said higher parking prices at the Grand Arcade would put shoppers off of coming to the city centre 'even more'.

She said: "We recently carried out a survey, where we asked what things most deterred people from visiting our city centre shops.

"The majority of those – 61 per cent - said the high parking charges.

Amongst the responses from News readers , Jennifer Curry said: "I live between Cambridge and Peterborough. Why would I pay £25 for 5 hours when I can pay £2 for all day parking in Peterborough? The council is screwing itself...."